What Is Encryption? Definition, Working, and Types

Encryption is how text or data is converted into encoded information using a fixed code or algorithm.

November 2, 2022

Encryption refers to converting a piece of text or data into encoded information called ciphertext using a predetermined code or algorithm so that those who know the code or algorithm can decode the ciphertext to reveal the original data. This article defines encryption and explains how it works. It also explains the different types of encryption and how they work together to provide a secure and trustworthy Internet.

What Is Encryption?

Encryption refers to converting a piece of text or data into encoded information called ciphertext using a predetermined code or algorithm so that those who know the code or algorithm can decode the ciphertext to reveal the original data.

Encryption is the method of masking or enciphering information so that it may be read only by those who can decipher it. It is essential for a trustworthy and secure Internet. It contributes to securing sensitive information.

Encryption is often used to safeguard data kept on electronic systems and data exchanged across computer networks, such as the internet. Fiscal transactions and private messaging often use encryption for security purposes. It is crucial when we need to determine if data has been altered (data integrity), to boost people’s trust that they are interacting with the persons they believe they are speaking with (identity verification), and to ensure that communications have been delivered and received (non-repudiation). 

Encryption is a method for rendering data unintelligible to an unauthorized third party. This aims to deter fraudsters, who may have employed sophisticated methods to obtain access to a company’s network only to discover that the information is incomprehensible and, therefore, worthless.

Encryption not only preserves the privacy of data or communications but also offers authenticity and integrity, demonstrating that the information or communications have not been changed from their original condition.

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How did modern encryption systems come into being?

The usage of codes and ciphers to safeguard secrets dates back thousands of years. Until recent times, the history of cryptography was dominated by what may be termed “classical” techniques, such as pen-and-paper or simple mechanical assistance. Until the 1960s, governments dominated the field of safe encryption. The establishment of a public encryption standard (DES) and the discovery of public-key cryptography have moved it squarely into the public domain.

Encryption may be traced back to its religious application in ancient Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman martial culture, through the World Wars and the invention of the first computer, to its current use in the World Wide Web era. In most situations, people are ignorant of the widespread usage of encryption in contemporary society. Primarily, encryption is used to conduct transactions across insecure communication channels, like the internet.

The earliest encryption was the substitution cipher, which used a relatively basic way of substituting units (letters or letter groups) with other components utilizing a rubric of substitution principles, e.g., A=J, B=K, etc. Before computers, encryption confidentiality was assured by sending and receiving cipher keys. Therefore, regardless of whether the messenger was apprehended, one could not decipher the message.

In contemporary cryptography, the safety of encryption does not rely on the encryption technique (or algorithm) but on the secrecy of the encryption and decryption keys. RSA (named after its creators Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman) developed the notion of a set of public and private keys for encryption.

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Why is encryption so important?

There are several reasons why modern enterprises rely so heavily on encryption technology for communication and data storage. It helps in the following:

  • Staying compliant: Depending on your business or employer’s unique requirements, data encryption for information security may become obligatory instead of voluntary. For instance, in the healthcare industry, patient privacy rules mandate that information be encrypted—noncompliance results in substantial business penalties.
  • Protecting data: Although perimeter security solutions might make it more difficult to obtain information from external sources, once the network has been compromised, the security of your data is only as good as your data encryption. With the appropriate encryption, you can go about your work confident that your information is secure and that there is no plausible method for hackers to get the raw data. A brute-force algorithm would need more than a generation to decode all the information correctly.
  • Saving costs: Most operating systems contain free encryption tools and applications (like BitLocker for Microsoft Windows, Android, and iOS) that may be downloaded or utilized without cost. Mobile operating systems simplify securing your smartphone and provide essential protection.
  • Securing data in motion: Data in transit is often in its most vulnerable state. A robust encryption solution will safeguard sensitive data at every step of its travel and guarantee that any files are always protected from theft and data loss.
  • Authenticating backups: Encryption cannot often guarantee the confidentiality of data at rest, given that data is constantly changing, but one may use it to check the integrity of backups. In addition, digital signatures allow us to preserve the authenticity of data in transit. This prevents hackers from intercepting messages and interfering with data since the receiver may quickly detect such activity.
  • Inspiring customer trust: Even when not compelled by privacy legislation to encrypt data, several businesses do so to demonstrate to their customers that they regard privacy seriously. Companies may boost confidence among customers by describing exactly how they secure client data. Although end-users must also take responsibility, businesses may bolster their reputations by highlighting their dedication to integrating the most recent encryption technology into their processes.
  • Supporting remote work: Data breaches are more likely to occur when people operate remotely. This is not unexpected given that many remote employees save personal information on their devices, and businesses have limited authority over how this information is viewed and disseminated. To prevent cybercriminals from intercepting unprotected public Wi-Fi connections, all sensitive information must be encrypted, and remote employees should utilize virtual private networks (VPN).

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How Does Encryption Work?

The core encryption process is relatively straightforward — using algorithms, encryption scrambles your data. The message is subsequently transferred to the recipient, who may decode it using a key. There are several sorts of algorithms, each of which involves distinct methods for encrypting and decrypting information.

Particularly for scrambling and decrypting data, a randomized sequence of bits termed a key is generated. These are used for encrypting or decrypting data. Each key is generated using a technique that ensures its randomness. Longer keys are more secure. Standard key lengths for symmetric key algorithms are 128 bits, and for public key algorithms, they are 2048 bits.

The algorithm is the mechanism followed by the encryption process, and the individual algorithm is known as the cipher or code. Numerous kinds of encryption algorithms exist. The objective and degree of security of the encryption determine the most efficient technique. Instances of encryption algorithms or ciphers include Triple DES, RSA, and Blowfish.

Instances of encryption algorithms or ciphers include Triple DES, RSA, and Blowfish, as we will discuss later in this article.

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3 Phases of encryption

Data encryption consists of three phases. First, you enter any data you want to encrypt along with a key (Password or passphrase). Second, you will submit them to an encryption method as input when you have them.

The algorithm then modifies the input data utilizing the Encryption key and sends the modified output. One may then deliver the result to the second person through any channel or can retain the encoded information for future use. The receiver will submit the decryption key and encrypted information to a decryption algorithm when it receives the data. The receiver will submit the decryption key and encrypted information to a decryption algorithm when it gets the data. 

Frequency analysis is another crucial concept in encryption. It is a method for breaking ciphers. Those attempting to decipher a communication will examine the occurrence of letters and letter combinations inside the ciphertext. Because certain letters appear more frequently, the recurrence of characters might betray portions of the encrypted text. This approach was successful against older encryption schemes; however, it is useless against contemporary encryption.

Today, data encryption on a backup system renders it worthless to a hacker. One could only access the data on a stolen encrypted disc with a key (like a password) or the original system that encrypted it. 

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How do encryption tools work?

Various free and paid solutions are available for encrypting individual files, folders, and even hard drives. Some of these include:

  • MySQL Enterprise: Enabling data-at-rest encryption in the database, MySQL Enterprise Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) safeguards highly sensitive data. It employs industry-best AES algorithms and a two-layer encryption key framework comprising master encryption and tablespace keys.
  • VeraCrypt: VeraCrypt is a free, open-source, on-the-fly encryption application. The program may generate a virtual encrypted drive that functions identically to a physical disc within a file. Additionally, one may use pre-boot authentication to secure a partition or the whole storage device.
  • IBM’s Guardium Data Encryption: IBM Security Guardium Data Encryption is a series of integrated solutions based on a shared architecture. One may prevent cloud vendor lock-in with powerful multi-cloud Bring Your Own Encryption (BYOE) technologies and centralized key management.
  • Sophos: Sophos Safeguard Encryption provides data security and confidentiality across many platforms. It enables simple data administration over a vast network without jeopardizing data security. It offers an efficient and seamless process.
  • Microsoft BitLocker: Microsoft BitLocker is a comprehensive encryption solution included with Microsoft Windows business editions for the last 14 years. BitLocker allows you to encrypt your whole hard drive so that only authorized users can access its data, even when the hard disk is lost or stolen.
  • AWS Encryption SDK: The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Encryption SDK is a client-first encryption toolkit intended to simplify the encryption and decryption of information employing industry best practices. It allows you to concentrate on the essential functioning of apps instead of worrying about how to encrypt and decode the data most securely. The AWS Encryption SDK is made available at no cost with the Apache 2.0 license.

In addition to desktops, one may secure mobile phones and SD cards for additional storage. Before enabling encryption, it is usual for smartphones to necessitate that you create a PIN, password, or swiping sequence to unlock your phone. If this is not configured, you may not have the option to encrypt SD cards in your settings. After setting a PIN, passcode, or swiping sequence to access the screen, one may encrypt the card from the Settings menu.

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Types of Encryption

There are two ways to classify encryption — symmetric/asymmetric encryption and based on the type of algorithm used. Therefore, the eight critical types of encryption are:

1. Symmetric encryption

This approach, also known as private-key cryptography or a secret key algorithm, needs both the person sending and the one receiving the text to possess the same key. Therefore, the receiver must possess the keys before decoding the communication. 

This strategy is most effective for contained systems since they are less susceptible to third-party incursions. On the upside, this type of encryption is much faster than its asymmetric counterpart. However, both parties must ensure that the key is kept safe and accessible only to the program that needs to utilize it.

2. Asymmetric encryption

This type of encryption employs the concept of a key pair, in which the encryption and decryption processes use distinct keys. Typically, one of these keys is the private key, and the other is the public key. 

The owner keeps the private key confidential, while the public key is shared with approved recipients or made accessible to the public. Only the recipient’s private key may decode data encrypted using the recipient’s public key. Therefore, one may send data without the threat of unauthorized or illegal access.

3. RSA encryption

RSA is an asymmetrical cryptographic method. Asymmetric implies that it operates on two distinct keys, the public and private keys. The public key is made available to all, while the private key is protected. RSA is founded on the notion that it is hard to factorize a big number. 

The public key consists of two numbers, one product of two huge prime integers. RSA keys are usually 1024 or 2048 bits in length; however, experts predict that 1024-bit keys might be hacked soon, even though the operation is currently unrealistic.

4. Data Encryption Standard (DES) encryption

The Data Encryption Standard is the first encryption standard of the United States government. Originally believed to be impenetrable, the rise in processing power and reduction in hardware costs have made 56-bit encryption almost obsolete. This is particularly true for sensitive data. The low-level encryption is simple to implement and requires little computer resources. Consequently, it is widely used by smart cards and minimal resource equipment, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

5. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption

The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is presently the trusted encryption standard of the US government. It is founded on the Rijndael algorithm invented by Belgian cryptographers Vincent Rijmen and Joan Daemen. They sent their approach to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and beat 14 competitors to become the official DES replacement. 

AES employs a symmetric block cipher and a symmetric key method. Three key sizes are available: 128, 192, and 256 bits. Additionally, various rounds of encryption exist for each key size.

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6. Twofish encryption

Twofish was a finalist in the NIST Advanced Encryption Standard competition, but Rijndael won. The Twofish technique employs key lengths of 128, 196, and 256 bits and has a complicated key structure, making it difficult to decrypt. Security professionals regard Twofish as one of the quickest data encryption frameworks and an excellent option for both hardware and software. Moreover, Twofish encryption is free for anybody to use. It is included in oft-used free encryption applications like VeraCrypt, PeaZip, etc.

7. 3DES encryption

3DES is a data encryption algorithm developed from the Data Encryption Standard (DES). It rose to prominence in the late 1990s but has since lost popularity as more secure algorithms like AES-256 and XChaCha20 have emerged. While it is slated to be deprecated in 2023, it is still used in some scenarios. The Data Encryption Standard (DES) is a symmetric-key technique established on a Feistel network. The same key is used for encryption and decryption as a symmetric key cipher. DES has 64-bit block and key sizes, although the key only provides 56 bits of security.

8. XChaCha20 encryption

XChaCha20 is an algorithm for encrypting and decrypting information. It supports two distinct key lengths, with 256-bit encryption as the most secure. In 2005 and 2008, Daniel J. Bernstein separately devised the techniques, Poly1305, and ChaCha20, which serve as the construction’s building pieces. One can implement it quicker than AES-256. Additionally, it is around three times quicker on systems without AES hardware. Slowly but surely, mobile platforms are migrating to XChaCha20; therefore, in the coming years, it will be recognized on an even broader scale.

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Takeaway 

Today, encryption is an intrinsic part of nearly every component of IT infrastructure. From protecting our email communication and WhatsApp messages to securing Zoom calls and web pages, sophisticated encryption algorithms help create ciphertext that is near-impossible to beat. However, organizations and developer teams should not take encryption for granted and should take proactive measures to incorporate it into their cybersecurity strategy. 

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Chiradeep BasuMallick
Chiradeep is a content marketing professional, a startup incubator, and a tech journalism specialist. He has over 11 years of experience in mainline advertising, marketing communications, corporate communications, and content marketing. He has worked with a number of global majors and Indian MNCs, and currently manages his content marketing startup based out of Kolkata, India. He writes extensively on areas such as IT, BFSI, healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, and financial analysis & stock markets. He studied literature, has a degree in public relations and is an independent contributor for several leading publications.
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